eBay shareholders, board members and executives gathered at the Wynn Resort Hotel in Las Vegas Tuesday morning for the company's annual shareholders meeting.
Business to be conducted included the election of directors; consideration of an amendment to eBay's equity incentive plan; ratification of the selection of PricewaterhouseCoopers as independent auditors; and other business. Full information about the issues can be found on the Securities and Exchange (SEC) website (http://www.sec.gov).
Over seventy-five people, including executives, board members employees and members of the media were on hand.
After the formal portion of the meeting concluded, eBay CEO Meg Whitman gave a presentation to shareholders. She reviewed eBay's evolution and showed videos from each of the core businesses. For the marketplaces, she said the way eBay will continue to grow is through worldclass marketing; to improve the buyer/seller value proposition; and to continue to accelerate product and technical innovation.
Whitman's strategy is to expand beyond the core to "tailored shopping experiences," such as eBay Express. eBay is also exploring new monetization models and used Shopping.com's lead generation model as an example.
Whitman said eBay is the number one ecommerce franchise globally. In what sounded like a dig at Google, Whitman said, we are focused on this - focus really matters. This is what we do.
Next, Whitman discussed eBay's online payment service, PayPal. Key opportunities include:
- Defacto payment service on every marketplace - includes Shopping.com
- Global merchant services
- Expand globally
- Move beyond Internet payments
New initiatives involve buyer credit and PayPal Mobile that offer great long-term potential, Whitman said.
Finally, Whitman addressed its new communications business, Skype. The business is to enable the world's communications, both one-to-one, many-to-many. She called it the fasted-adopted property they've ever seen.
The winner will be the one with the best product and the bet ecosystem. Skype has 3,000 developers who have written 400 applications, partnered with hardware manufacturers, she said.
Currently revenue comes from telephony revenues. Long term growth will come from new ecommerce revenues: communities and content (Skypecast); pay Per Lead; eBay integration; PayPal integration.
Whitman, a classicly trained marketer, said eBay is the "only multi-brand company on the Internet, with 3 of 5 best brands on the Internet today." eBay will build synergies among its brands: "One plus one plus one equals much more than three."
Whitman then discussed financials, and said eBay has a tremendous set of assets: "If you think last 10 years were fantastic, I think they were a warmup."
During the Q&A session, a PETA representative made a statement and asked eBay to change its policy and improve enforcement of existing policies toward the sale of animals on the site (http://www.peta.org/mc/NewsItem.asp?id=8461). Whitman apologized for not being responsive, saying, "We take pride in answering every single email we get," and asked him to speak to eBay's Trust & Safety reprentative, Jeff Taylor.
Two eBay sellers asked Meg Whitman to address the issue of seller verification, with one asking for all sellers on the site to be bonded. (See related story.)
